Good article on Avoiding Avalanches…….don’t go where there are Avalanches

I sometimes wonder if the numerous articles and products that are designed to increase your chances of surviving an avalanche are creating more avalanche situations. Sort of like a Risk Homeostasis issue. (For more on Risk Homeostasis see Target Risk.) By that I mean when avalanche beacons were very difficult to use and required hours of training people avoided the backcountry because they knew they did not have the skills needed. Avalanche beacons still require hours of training, however they are advertised as easy to use so consequently, are we sending more idiots out in the backcountry?

Don’t get me wrong, a beacon that is easier to use, more efficient in its search is needed. But idiots abound.

People who move to Colorado always ask what they need to know to enjoy Colorado. I have always told them to take an Avalanche course. This seems to catch them off guard, but since I have lived here I-70 has been buried twice in two sections less than 70 miles from Denver.

The writer of the article quotes an avalanche instructor at the end of a course saying “”Remember,” Mr. Matous said, “you’re not any more safe than you were last week.”” The same instructor also says that you would not be on the slope if you thought there would be an avalanche.

Where am I going? The article basically says if you want to survive an avalanche, don’t go where there are avalanches. Surviving an avalanche has nothing to do with what you know, what you have, how you are trained unless you put that all together and DON’T GO WHERE THERE ARE AVALANCHES!

See How to Survive an Avalanche.

Great article in my opinion.